PRESTIGE ACADEMY

Chapter Four: Shadows in the Spotlight

Liyana’s POV

By the time my first day at Prestige ended, my head was spinning.

Too many names. Too many stares. Too many whispered questions I didn’t have the answers to.

But the one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about?

Alexander Ford.

He hadn’t spoken a single word to me. Barely even looked my way. But his presence was impossible to ignore. Like cold air slipping into a warm room sharp, jarring, and unsettling.

There was something about him. Something quiet and heavy, like a story no one dared to tell out loud.

And tonight, as I lay on the crisp sheets of my dorm bed staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, I gave in to the pull of curiosity.

I reached for my phone, the cheap model my uncle bought me before I left Ixopo, and opened the browser.

Search: “Alexander Ford South Africa”

The results loaded quickly. News sites. Business articles. Nothing personal.

“Ford Holdings Reports Record Profits in Global Mining Expansion”

“Ford Legacy: The Empire Behind South Africa’s Most Elusive Billionaire”

“Meet the Youngest Ford: Alexander Joins the Boardroom at Age 18”

But there were no photos. Not of his father. Not even of him just a few blurry shots of a boy in uniform walking into buildings, face hidden, head down. Every image looked like it was taken in secret.

I clicked one article, hoping to find something real. It only had a quote from a business analyst:

“The Ford family is notoriously private. No media appearances, no red carpets, no scandals. Just money. Clean, controlled, and invisible.”

Invisible.

I scrolled further. Not a single interview. No social media. Even his school file on the Prestige Academy portal had only the basics age, subjects, academic awards. No photos, no extracurriculars.

It was like someone had scrubbed him out of every corner of the public eye.

And yet… here he was. Sitting in my classroom. Breathing the same air. With a gaze that could cut glass and a silence that said more than most people ever did.

Why was he like this?

Why did he choose to be a shadow in a place full of people desperate to shine?

I turned my phone off and placed it on the nightstand.

Maybe I was stupid for wondering. Maybe he was just another rich boy with secrets and a superiority complex.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that Alexander Ford wasn’t hiding because he wanted to.

He was hiding because he had to.

And for the first time since arriving at Prestige, I didn’t feel so alone.

Because I knew what it was like to hide too only I was doing it for different reasons.

I closed my eyes, and for a moment, I imagined what would happen if two people who lived in the shadows ever dared to step into the light together.

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